Lardil is a member of the Tangkic family of Non-Pama–Nyungan Australian languages, along with Kayardild and Yukulta, which are close enough to be mutually intelligible.[6] Though Lardil is not mutually intelligible with either of these,[7] it is likely that many Lardil speakers were historically bilingual in Yangkaal (a close relative of Kayardild), since the Lardil people have long been in contact with the neighboring Yangkaal tribe and trading, marriage and conflict between them seem to have been common.[8] There was also limited contact with mainland tribes including the Yanyuwa, of Borroloola; and the Garawa and Wanyi, which groups ranged as far east as Burketown.[9] Members of the Kaiadilt tribe (i.e. speakers of Kayardild) also settled on nearby Bentinck Island in 1947.[10]

The number of Lardil speakers has diminished dramatically since Kenneth Hale's study of the language in the late 1960s. Hale worked with a few dozen speakers of Lardil, some of these fluent older speakers, and others younger members of the community who had only a working or passive understanding.[11][12] When Norvin Richards, a student of Hale's, returned to Mornington Island to continue work on Lardil in the 1990s, he found Lardil children had no understanding of the language and that only a handful of aging speakers remained;[12] Richards has stated that "Lardil was deliberately destroyed"[12] by assimilation and relocation programs in the years of the "Stolen Generation". A dictionary and grammatical sketch of the language were compiled and published by the Mornington Shire Council in 1997,[13] and the Mornington Island State School has implemented a government-funded cultural education program incorporating the Lardil language.[14] The last fluent speaker of so-called Old Lardil died in 2007,[15] though a few speakers of a grammatically distinct New variety remain.[16]

Lardil has an intensely complex system of kinship terms reflecting the centrality of kin-relations to Lardil society; all members of the community are addressed by the terms as well as by given names.[17] This system also features a few dyadic kinship terms, i.e. titles for pairs rather than individuals, such as kangkariwarr ‘pair of people, one of whom is the paternal great uncle/aunt or grandparent of the other’.[18]

Traditionally, the Lardil community held two initiation ceremonies for young men. Luruku, which involved circumcision, was undergone by all men following the appearance of facial hair;[19]warama, the second initiation, was purely voluntary and culminated in a subincision ceremony.[20]

Luruku initiates took a year-long oath of silence and were taught a sign language known as marlda kangka (literally, ‘hand language’), which, though limited in its semantic scope, was fairly complex.[21] Anthropologist David McKnight's research in the 1990s suggests that marlda kangka classifies animals somewhat differently from Lardil, having, for example, a class containing all shellfish (which Lardil lacks) and lacking an inclusive sign for ‘dugong+turtle’ (Lardil dilmirrur).[18] In addition to its use by luruku initiates, marlda kangka had practical applications in hunting and warfare.[22]

While marlda kangka was essentially a male language, the non-initiated were not forbidden to speak it.[22] Damin, on the other hand, was (at least nominally) a secret language spoken only by warama initiates and those preparing for second initiation,[5] though many community members seem to have understood it.[23] Damin, like marlda kangka, was phonologically, lexically and semantically distinct from Lardil, though its syntax and morphology seem to be analogous.[24] Research into the language has proved controversial, since the Lardil community regards it as cultural property and no explicit permission was given to make Damin words public.[23]

Death in Lardil tends to be treated euphemistically; it is common, for example, to use the phrase wurdal yarburr ‘meat’ when referring to a deceased person (or corpse).[18]Yuur-kirnee yarburr (literally, ‘The meat/animal has died’) has the sense ‘You-know-who has died’, and is preferable to a more direct treatment.[18] It is taboo to speak the name of a deceased person, even (for a year or so) when referring to living people with the same name; these people are addressed as thamarrka.[25] The deceased is often known by the name of his/her death or burial place plus the ‘necronym’ suffix -ngalin, as in Wurdungalin ‘one who died at Wurdu’.[25] Sometimes other strategies are used to refer to the dead, such as circumlocution via kinship terms.[25]

Lardil's consonant inventory is fairly typical with respect to Australian phonology; it does not distinguish between voiced and unvoiced stops (such as b/p and g/k), and features a full set of stops and nasals at six places of articulation[26] The distinction between ‘apical’ and ‘laminal’ consonants lies in whether the tip (apex) of the tongue or its flattened blade makes contact with the place of articulation.[23] Hale's 1997 practical orthography has ‘k’ for /k ~ ɡ/ in order to disambiguate nasal+velar clusters (as in wanka ‘arm’[27]) from instances of the velar nasal phoneme /ŋ/ (as in wangal ‘boomerang’[27]) and to avoid suggesting /ɡ/-gemination in /ŋ + k~ɡ/clusters (as in ngangkirr ‘together’[27]). The sounds represented by the digraphs ‘nh’ and ‘ly’ are not common in Lardil, but speakers perceive them as distinct, respectively, from /n/ and /l/, and they do occur in some words (e.g. minhal ‘burnt ground’, balyarriny [title of a social subsection]).[28]

Lardil has eight phonemically distinct vowels, differentiated by short and long variants at each of four places of articulation.[29] Phonemic vowel length is an important feature of many Australian languages; minimal pairs in Lardil with a vowel length distinction include waaka/waka ‘crow’/’armpit’ and thaldi/thaldii ‘come here!’/’to stand up’.[27] Long vowels are roughly twice as long as their short counterparts.[29]

Primary word stress in Lardil falls on the initial syllable, and primary phrase stress on the final word in the phrase.[30] These stress rules have some exceptions, notably compounds containing tangka ‘man’ as a head noun modified by a demonstrative or another nominal; these expressions, and other compound phrases, have phrase-initial stress.[31]

High vowels tend to undergo lowering at the end of bimoraic forms, as in *penki > penke 'lagoon'.[33] In several historical locative/ergatives, lowering does not occur.[33] It does occur in at least one long, u-final stem, and it coexists with the raising of certain stem-final /a/s.[33]

In some trimoraic (or longer) forms, final, underlying short vowels undergo apocope (deletion), as in *jalulu > jalul 'fire'.[33] Front-vowel apocope fails to occur in locatives, verbal negatives, many historical locative/ergatives, and a number of i-final stems such as wan̪t̪alŋi 'a species of fish'.[33] Back-vowel apocope also has lexically-governed exceptions.[23]

Cluster reduction simplifies underlying word-final consonant clusters, as in *makark > makar 'anthill'.[33] This process is "fed" in a sense by apocope, since some forms that would otherwise end in a short vowel arise as cluster-final after apocope (e.g. *jukarpa > *jukarp > jukar 'husband').[33]

Non-apical truncation results in forms like ŋalu from underlying *ŋaluk, in which the underlying form would end in a non-apical consonant (i.e. one not produced with the tip of the tongue).[33] This process is also fed by apocope, and seems to be lexically governed to an extent, since Lardil words can end in a laminal; compare kakawuɲ 'a species of bird', kulkic 'a species of shark'.[33]

In addition to the dropping of non-apicals, a process of apicalization is at work, giving forms such as ŋawit from underlying laminal-final *ŋawic. It has been proposed that the process responsible for some of these forms is better described as laminalization (i.e. nawit is underlying and nawic occurs in inflected forms), but apicalization explains the variation between alveolar /t/ and dental /t̪/ (contrastive but both apical) in surface forms with an underlying non-apical, and does not predict/generate as many invalid forms as does the laminalization model.[33]

Nominals are a semantically and functionally diverse group of inflected items in Lardil. Some of them are 'canonical nouns' which refer to items, people or concepts;[34] but many, the stative or attributive nominals, are semantically more like adjectives or other predicates.[34]Kurndakurn 'dry', durde 'weak', and other lexical items with adjectival meanings inflect exactly like other nominals[36] Determiners (e.g. nganikin 'that', baldu(u)rr 'that (distant) west'[18]), are also morphological nominals, as are inherently temporal and spatial adverbs[35] (e.g. dilanthaarr 'long ago', bada 'in the west'[18]).

The future marker (-thur) indicates anticipation/expectation of an event, or, when combined with the particle mara, either the proposed outcome of a hypothetical (If you had done X, I would have Y’ed) or an unachieved intention; it also marks embedded verbs in jussive clauses.[41]

The (marked) non-future is used primarily in dependent clauses to indicate a temporal limit to an action.[42]

The contemporaneous ending marks a verb in a subordinate clause when that verb's referent action is contemporaneous with the action described in the main clause.[43]

The evitative ending, which appears as -nymerra in objective (oblique) case, marks a verb whose event or process is undesirable or to be avoided, as in niya merrinymerr ‘He might hear’ (and we don’t want him to); it is somewhat analogous to English ‘lest’, though more productive.[44]

When one imperative follows another closely, the second verb is marked with a Sequential Imperative ending.[45]

Negation is semantically straightforward, but is expressed with a complex set of affixes; which is used depends on other properties of the verb.[46]

Other processes, which may be characterized as derivational rather than inflectional, express duration/repetition, passivity/reflexivity, reciprocality, and causativity on the verb.[47] Likewise, nouns may be derived from verbs by adding the suffix (-n ~ -Vn), as in werne-kebe-n ‘food-gatherer’ or werne-la-an ‘food-spearer’; the negative counterpart of this is (-jarr), as in dangka-be-jarr (man+bite+neg) ‘non-biter-of-people’.[48]

The nominative case, which is used with sentence subjects and objects of simple imperatives (such as yarraman ‘horse’ in Kurri yarraman ‘(You) Look at the horse.’) is not explicitly marked; uninflected nouns carry nominative case by default.[49]

The objective case (-n ~ -in) has five general functions, marking (1) the object of a verb in plain (i.e. unmarked non-future) form, (2) the agent of a passive verb in plain form, (3) the subject of a contemporaneous dependent clause (i.e. a 'while'/'when' clause), (4) the locative complement of a verb in the plain negative or negative imperative, and (5) the object of the sequential imperative (see section on verb morphology above).[35] Lardil displays some irregularities in object-marking morphology.[49]

The locative marker (-nge ~ -e ~ -Vː) appears on the locative complement of a verb in plain form.[50] The objective case serves this purpose with negative verbs.[50] Locative case is formed by lengthening the final vowel in instances of vowel-final base forms such as barnga ‘stone’ (LOC barngaa).[50] While the Locative case can denote a variety of locative relations (such as those expressed in English by at, on, in, along, etc.), such relations may be specified using inherently locative nominals (e.g. minda ‘near’, nyirriri ‘under’) that do not themselves inflect for this case. Nominals corresponding to animate beings tend not to be marked with Locative case; Genitive is preferred for such constructions as yarramangan ‘on the horse’ (lit. ‘of the horse’). On pronouns, for which case-marking is irregular, Locative case is realized via ‘double-expression’ of Genitive case: ngada ‘I’ > ngithun ‘I(gen) = my’ > ngithunngan ‘I(gen)+gen = on me’.[50]

The genitive morpheme (-kan ~ -ngan) marks (1) a possessor nominal, (2) the agent of a passive verb in the future, non-future or evitative; (3) the pronominal agent of any passive verb, (4) the subject of a relative clause, if it is a non-subject in the sentence; and (5) the subject of a cleft construction in which the topic is a non-subject (e.g. Diin wangal, ngithun thabuji-kan kubaritharrku ‘This boomerang, my brother made.’).[51]

The object of a verb in future tense (either negative or affirmative) is marked for futurity[52] by a suffix (-kur ~ -ur ~ -r), as in the sentence below:

(1)

Ngada

bulethur

yakur.

1pS (NOM)

catch+FUT

fish+FUT

'I will catch a fish.'

The future marker also has four other functions. It marks: (a) the locative complement (‘into the house’, ‘on the stone’) of a future verb, (2) the object of a verb in contemporaneous form, (3) the object of a verb in the evitative form (often translated as ‘be liable to V’, ‘might V’), and (4) the dative complement of certain verbs (e.g. ngukur ‘for-water’ in Lewurda ngukur ‘Ask him for water’). The instrumental case inflection is homophonous with the future marker, but both may appear on the same nominal in certain instances.[53]

The object of a verb in the (negative or affirmative) marked non-future also inflects for non-futurity. The non-future marking (-ngarr ~ -nga ~ -arr ~ -a) is also used to mark time adverbials in non-future clauses as well as the locative complement of a non-future verb.[54]

In addition to these inflectional endings, Lardil features several morphologically verbal affixes that are semantically similar to case markers ("verbal case") and, like case endings, mark noun phrases rather than individual nouns. Allative and ablative meanings (i.e. movement to or from) are expressed with these endings; as are the desiderative and a second type of evitave; comitative, proprietive and privative.[55]

Lardil nominals may also take one of two derivational (verbalizing) suffixes: the Inchoative (-e ~ -a ~ -ya), which has the sense ‘become X’, and the Causative (-ri ~ -iri), which has the sense ‘make X Y’; other verbalizing suffixes exist in Lardil but are far less productive than these two.[56]

Reduplication is productive in verbal morphology, giving a non-future durative with the pattern V-tharr V (where V is a verb), having the sense 'keep on V-ing', and a future durative with V-thururr V-thur.[45]

In some instances nominal roots may be reduplicated, in their entirety, to indicate plurality, but Lardil nominals are not generally marked for number and this form is fairly rare.[57]

Given the rich morphology of Lardil, it is not surprising that its word order is somewhat flexible; however, the basic sentence order has been described as SVO, with direct object either following or preceding indirect object and other dependents following these.[58] Clitics appear clause-second and/or on either side of the verb.[58]

Lardil is unique among the Tangkic languages in being non-ergative.[58] In an ergative language, the subject of an intransitive verb takes nominative case while the subject of a transitive verb takes ergative case (the object of this verb takes nominative case). In Lardil, subjects of both verb types are inflected for nominative case, and both indirect and direct objects marked for accusative[58] as in the following sentences:

Though part-whole relations are sometimes expressed using the genitive case as in (1) below, it is more common to mark both part and whole with the same case, placing the ‘part’ nominal immediately after its possessor nominal, as in (2).[60]

While very few speakers of Lardil in its traditional form remain, Norvin Richards and Kenneth Hale both worked with some speakers of a "New Lardil" in the 1990s which displays significant morphological attrition compared to the Old variety.[61][62] Previously minor sentence forms in which the object of a verb takes nominative case have become generalized, even in instances where the verb is in future tense (objects of future verbs historically inflected for futurity).[61] One of a number of negation patterns has become generalized, and the augmented forms of monosyllabic verb roots reinterpreted as base forms.[63]

1.
Mornington Island
–
Mornington Island is the northernmost of 22 islands that form the Wellesley Islands group. The island is in the Gulf of Carpentaria and is part of the Gulf Country region in the Australian state of Queensland, the Manowar and Rocky Islands Important Bird Area lies about 40 kilometres to the north-west. Mornington is the largest of the islands, the general topography of the island is flat with the maximum elevation of 500 feet. The island is fringed by mangrove forests and contains 10 estuaries, the population was estimated to be 1,007 in 2001 and the majority of the citizens live in the township of Gununa. Mornington Island is included in the Shire of Mornington local government area, the majority of the islanders are Aboriginal. Lardil are the predominant clan group on Mornington Island and are the owners of the land. The Kiadilt clan arrived more recently from nearby Bentinck Island, when that islands water supply was contaminated by salt after a cyclone, recent re-building work on aboriginal housing has been undertaken by the James Fraser Foundation, a non-profit organisation in Queensland. Macassan trepangers once travelled thousands of kilometres from Sulawesi to Mornington Island, the eastern cape of the island was named Cape Van Diemen after Anthony van Diemen. Commander Matthew Flinders named the island after Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley who was known as The Earl of Mornington, Gununa Post Office opened by 1892. The Mornington Island Airport was an airfield used by the RAAF. Penile subincision was traditionally performed on the island for those wanting to learn a complex language called Damin. In 1978, the Queensland government decided to take control of both the Aurukun and Mornington Island Aboriginal reserves. In 2000 Cyclone Steve passed directly over the island, Tropical Cyclone May passed in February 1988 and Tropical Cyclone Bernie passed to the west in early 2002. Tropical Cyclone Fritz passed directly over the island on 12 February 2003, severe Tropical Cyclone Harvey caused damage on the island in February,2005. McKnight lamented the increasing levels of violence since the 1970s, indigenous art of Mornington Island is described in The Heart of Everything, The art and artists of Mornington & Bentinck Islands, ed. N. Evans, L. Martin-Chew and P. Memmott. A tribe of people on the island have been communicating with wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins for millennium. It is said that they havea medicine man who calls the dolphins, by these communications he assures that the tribes’ fortunes and happiness are maintained. In 2003 the Government of Queensland implemented an Alcohol Management Plan to 19 indigenous communities in Queensland where alcohol abuse was rampant, the alcohol bans are aimed at alleviating high levels of domestic violence, child abuse and child neglect

2.
Queensland
–
Queensland is the second-largest and third-most-populous state in the Commonwealth of Australia. Situated in the north-east of the country, it is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west, to the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean. Queensland has a population of 4,750,500, concentrated along the coast, the state is the worlds sixth largest sub-national entity, with an area of 1,852,642 km2. The capital and largest city in the state is Brisbane, Australias third largest city, often referred to as the Sunshine State, Queensland is home to 10 of Australias 30 largest cities and is the nations third largest economy. Tourism in the state, fuelled largely by its tropical climate, is a major industry. Queensland was first inhabited by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, the first European to land in Queensland was Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon in 1606, who explored the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula near present-day Weipa. In 1770, Lieutenant James Cook claimed the east coast of Australia for the Kingdom of Great Britain. The colony of New South Wales was founded in 1788 by Governor Arthur Phillip at Sydney, New South Wales at that time included all of what is now Queensland, Queensland was explored in subsequent decades until the establishment of a penal colony at Brisbane in 1824 by John Oxley. Penal transportation ceased in 1839 and free settlement was allowed from 1842, the state was named in honour of Queen Victoria, who on 6 June 1859 signed Letters Patent separating the colony from New South Wales. The 6th of June is now celebrated statewide as Queensland Day. Queensland achieved statehood with the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, the history of Queensland spans thousands of years, encompassing both a lengthy indigenous presence, as well as the eventful times of post-European settlement. The north-eastern Australian region was explored by Dutch, Spanish and French navigators before being encountered by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770, the Australian Labor Party has its origin as a formal organisation in Queensland and the town of Barcaldine is the symbolic birthplace of the party. June 2009 marked the 150th anniversary of its creation as a colony from New South Wales. The Aboriginal occupation of Queensland is thought to predate 50,000 BC, likely via boat or land bridge across Torres Strait, during the last ice age Queenslands landscape became more arid and largely desolate, making food and other supplies scarce. This led to the worlds first seed-grinding technology, warming again made the land hospitable, which brought high rainfall along the eastern coast, stimulating the growth of the states tropical rainforests. In February 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed near the site of what is now Weipa and this was the first recorded landing of a European in Australia, and it also marked the first reported contact between European and Aboriginal Australian people. The region was explored by French and Spanish explorers prior to the arrival of Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. Cook claimed the east coast under instruction from King George III of the United Kingdom on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island, naming Eastern Australia, including Queensland, the Aboriginal population declined significantly after a smallpox epidemic during the late 18th century

3.
Stolen Generations
–
Documentary evidence, such as newspaper articles and reports to parliamentary committees, suggest a range of rationales. A minority of historians dispute that substantial numbers of mixed-blood Aboriginal children were taken from their families. They contend that some children were removed mainly to protect them from neglect, given their catastrophic population decline after white contact, whites assumed that the full-blood tribal Aboriginal population would be unable to sustain itself, and was doomed to extinction. The idea expressed by A. O. Euro-Australians believed that their civilisation was superior to that of Aborigines, the Northern Territory Chief Protector of Aborigines, Dr. Cecil Cook, argued that everything necessary to convert the half-caste into a white citizen. The Victorian Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 included the earliest legislation to authorise child removal from Aboriginal parents, the Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines had been advocating such powers since 1860. Passage of the Act gave the colony of Victoria a wide suite of powers over Aboriginal and half-caste persons, including the removal of children. As a result of legislation, states arranged widespread removal of mixed-race children from their Aboriginal mothers. In addition, appointed Aboriginal protectors in each state exercised wide-ranging guardianship powers over Aborigines up to the age of 16 or 21, often determining where they could live or work. Policemen or other agents of the state were given the power to locate and transfer babies and children of mixed descent from their mothers, families, the exact number of children removed is unknown. Estimates of numbers have been widely disputed, the Bringing Them Home report says that at least 100,000 children were removed from their parents. This figure was estimated by multiplying the Aboriginal population in 1994, the report stated that between one in three and one in ten children were separated from their families, not one in three persons in the total population. Given differing populations over a period of time, different policies at different times in different states. Australian historian Robert Manne suggests approximately 20,000 to 25,000 were removed between 1910 and 1970, based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics report of 1994, keith Windschuttle and other historians have argued for a much lower figure. In certain regions and in periods the figure was undoubtedly much greater than one in ten. In that time not one family has escaped the effects of forcible removal, most families have been affected, in one or more generations, by the forcible removal of one or more children. The report closely examined the distinctions between forcible removal, removal under threat or duress, official deception, uninformed voluntary release, Aboriginal Protection Officers often made the judgement to remove certain children. In some cases, families were required to sign documents to relinquish care to the state. In Western Australia, the Aborigines Act 1905 removed the legal guardianship of Aboriginal parents and it made all their children legal wards of the state, so the government did not require parental permission to relocate the mixed-race children to institutions

4.
Penile subincision
–
The slit can be of varying lengths. Disadvantages include the risks inherent in the procedure itself, which is often self-performed, the ability to impregnate may also be decreased. Subincisions can greatly affect urination and often require the male to sit or squat while urinating. The scrotum can be pulled up against the open urethra to quasi-complete the tube and allow an approximation to normal urination, while a few subincised men carry a tube with which they can aim. Subincision is widespread in the cultures of Indigenous Australians, and is well documented among the peoples of the central desert of Australia such as the Arrernte. The Arrernte word for subincision is arilta, and occurs as a rite of passage ritual for adolescent boys and it was given to the Arrernte by Mangar-kunjer-kunja, a lizard-man spirit being from the Dreamtime. A subincised penis is thought to resemble a vulva, and the bleeding is likened to menstruation and this type of modification of the penis was also traditionally performed by the Lardil people of Mornington Island, Queensland. The young men who chose to endure this custom were the ones to learn a simple ceremonial language. In later ceremonies, repeated throughout adult life, the penis would be used as a site for ritual bloodletting. According to Ken Hale, who studied Damin, no ritual initiations have been carried out in the Gulf of Carpentaria for half a century, another indigenous Australian term for the custom is mika or the terrible rite. Indigenous cultures of the Amazon Basin also practise subincision, as do Samburu herdboys of Kenya, a subincized penis can be penetrated by another penis, provided the latter is sufficiently small. In some Australian cultures, one traditional practice involved the penetration of an elders subincized penis by the penis of a young boy who was usually under age 7. Some authors have theorized that this was the purpose of subincision. Genital bisection Modern primitive Body modification General Roheim, G´esa, bettelheim, Bruno Symbolic Wounds, Puberty Rites and the Envious Male. Farb, Peter Mans Rise to Civilization New York, E. P. Dutton p98-101, Polynesia Firth, Raymond, We the Tikopia, A Sociological Study of Kinship in Primitive Polynesia. Martin, John Tonga Islands, William Mariner’s Account, diamond, M. Selected Cross-Generational Sexual Behavior in Traditional Hawai’i, A Sexological Ethnography, in Feierman, J. R. Pedophilia, Biosocial Dimensions. New York, Springer-Verlag, p422-43 Melanesia Kempf, Wolfgang, the Politics of Incorporation, Masculinity, Spatiality and Modernity among the Ngaing of Papua New Guinea. Hogbin, Ian The Island of Menstruating Men, Religion in Wogeo, prospect Heights, IL, Waveland Australia Basedow H. Subincision and Kindred Rites of the Australian Aboriginal

5.
Boomerang
–
A boomerang is a tool, typically constructed as a flat air foil that, when thrown, is designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower and it is well known as a weapon used by Indigenous Australians for hunting. Boomerangs have been used for hunting, as well as a sport. They are commonly thought of as an Australian icon, and come in shapes and sizes. A boomerang is traditionally a wooden device, although historically boomerang-like devices have also been made from bones. Modern boomerangs used for sport are often made from thin aircraft plywood, plastics such as ABS, polypropylene, phenolic paper, Boomerangs come in many shapes and sizes depending on their geographic or tribal origins and intended function. An important distinction should be made between returning boomerangs and non-returning boomerangs, Returning boomerangs fly and are examples of the earliest heavier-than-air man-made flight. While a throwing stick can also be shaped overall like a boomerang, it is designed to travel as straight as possible so that it can be aimed. Its surfaces therefore are symmetrical and not uneven like the aerofoils which give the returning boomerang its characteristic curved flight, Returning boomerangs were also used to decoy birds of prey, thrown above long grass to frighten game birds into flight and into waiting nets. Modern returning boomerangs can be of various shapes or sizes as can be seen in a photo in the Modern use section. Historical evidence also points to the use of non-returning boomerangs by the Native Americans of California and Arizona, indeed, some boomerangs were not thrown at all, but were used in hand to hand combat by Indigenous Australians. Ancient Egyptian examples, however, have recovered and experiments have shown that they functioned as returning boomerangs. Boomerangs can be used as hunting weapons, percussive musical instruments, battle clubs, fire-starters, decoys for hunting waterfowl. The smallest boomerang may be less than 10 centimetres from tip to tip, tribal boomerangs may be inscribed and/or painted with designs meaningful to their makers. Most boomerangs seen today are of the tourist or competition sort, the origin of the term is mostly certain, but many researchers have different theories on how the word entered into the English vocabulary. The boomerang was first encountered by people at Farm Cove, Australia, in December 1804. David Collins listed Wo-mur-rāng as one of eight aboriginal Names of clubs in 1798, a 1790 anonymous manuscript on aboriginal language of New South Wales reported Boo-mer-rit as the Scimiter. In 1822 it was described in detail and recorded as a bou-mar-rang, the Turawal used other words for their hunting sticks but used boomerang to refer to a returning throw-stick

6.
Borroloola
–
Borroloola is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the McArthur River, about 50 km upstream from the Gulf of Carpentaria, at the 2011 census, Borroloola had a population of 926. Borroloola lies on the country of the Yanyuwa people, on the coastal plain between the Barkly Tablelands and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Rivers that run from the Tablelands escarpment to the Gulf regularly flood in the wet season, the rivers of this region have carved spectacular gorges through sandstone deposits in their upper reaches. The rivers and coastal areas are host to barramundi, earning Borroloola a reputation among sports fisherman, the region has little rain from May to September, and is characterised by lightly treed Savanna grasslands. The Coast Track follows the path of cattle drovers of the late 19th century as they moved herds from north-west Queensland to stock the new stations of the Northern Territory, the drovers in turn followed a well-worn Aboriginal path. Borroloola was declared a town on 10 September 1885, in the local Indigenous languages of Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Marra, Gudanji and Binbingka, Borroloola would be written as Burrulula. The name belongs to a lagoon just to the east of the present day caravan park. The name originally Borrolooloo, translates borrow women, name of the lagoon and it was at this site that the Hill Kangaroo Ancestral Being danced his ceremonies. The white barked gum trees in the area are said to be his body decorations as they flew from his body as he danced, other Indigenous names in the area of Borroloola are Wurrarawala this hill is associated with the backbone of the Hill Kangaroo Ancestor. Bunubunu, this creek is associated with a File Snake Ancestor, warralungku and Mabunji, a set of specific rocks at the McArthur River Crossing that carry the imprint of the Hill Kangaroos tail and feet. The area of Borroloola belongs to members of the Rrumburriya clan, in 1977, the Yanyuwa people were the first to successfully lodge a claim under the new Federal Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 over Borroloola and the Pellew Islands. The claim was resolved in 2015. A second land claim in 2002, saw the islands in the area also handed back. The King Ash Bay fishing club is situated on the McArthur River about 40 km downstream from Borroloola by river and their boat ramp provides access to the mangrove-lined waterways of the McArthur estuary and the Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The Fishing Classic competition, held over the Easter weekend each year, the Borroloola Community Education Centre contains a preschool, primary school and secondary school. The Borroloola CEC has a staff of more than 25. The staff are composed of mostly out-of-state teachers and local indigenous teacher aides, the CEC enjoys an average attendance of 100 students, but has far more listed on its rolls

7.
Burketown, Queensland
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Burketown is an isolated town and locality in the far north-western Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. It is located 898km west of Cairns on the Albert River, the town is the administrative centre of the vast Burke Shire Council. In the 2011 census, Burketown had a population of 201 people, the town is roughly 30 kilometres inland from the Gulf of Carpentaria. On 2 August 1841, Captain J. Lort Stokes discovered the mouth of a river he named the Albert after Prince Albert, Stokes party ascended the river for a distance of 50 river miles in a long boat in a search for fresh water. Having followed a wet season Stokes was greeted by endless grassy plains. The area was named for the Plains of Promise or Province of Albert after Prince Albert. Burketown was named in honour of explorer Robert OHara Burke, who died shortly after making the first recorded successful south-north crossing of the continent in 1860-1, the first European settlers arrived in the local region not long after Burke and partner William John Wills expedition. By the mid-1860s, several cattle stations - including Gregory Downs, Floraville, Burketown was formally established in 1865 by Robert Towns, chiefly to serve as a port and supply centre for his extensive properties in the Gulf country. Towns chartered a vessel the Jacmel Packet and on 12 June 1865 it arrived off the mouth of the Albert River. The goods were landed on the present site of Burketown. Towns, a prominent Sydney pastoralist and financier, also established Townsville in the same year, by September 1865 the population was about 40 and by October a store and a hotel were under construction, the balance of buildings were humpies. Rations and grog were plentiful but already one evil was noted, the town grew, however currency, both notes and coins, were so short in early Burketown that the business people issued their own currency, dubbed shinplaster or calabashers. These were in the form of IOUs hand printed on paper so that they had as short a life as possible. The pioneer spirit was indomitable and the first official meeting was held 25 July 1866 with prize money at $200. In October 1868 Towns and Co traded wool, tallow, hides, Burketown Post Office opened on 1 July 1866, closed in 1871 and reopened in 1883. In the same year, settlement of the region was assisted by the arrival of the Native Police, massacres of local Aboriginal people soon followed. As the Burketown correspondent of the Port Dennison Times reported on 4 June 1868, the newspaper paid thanks to those involved in ridding the district of fifty-nine myalls or local Aboriginal people. At first, hopes the town would develop into a settlement in north-western Queensland were high

8.
Retroflex consonant
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A retroflex consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants, especially in Indology, other terms occasionally encountered are domal and cacuminal. The Latin-derived word retroflex means bent back, some consonants are pronounced with the tongue fully curled back so that articulation involves the underside of the tongue tip. These sounds are described as true retroflex consonants. Retroflex consonants, like other consonants, come in several varieties. The tongue may be flat or concave, or even with the tip curled back. The point of contact on the tongue may be with the tip, with the blade, the point of contact on the roof of the mouth may be with the alveolar ridge, the area behind the alveolar ridge, or the hard palate. Finally, both sibilant and nonsibilant consonants can have a retroflex articulation, the greatest variety of combinations occurs with sibilants, because for these, small changes in tongue shape and position cause significant changes in the resulting sound. Retroflex sounds in general have a duller, lower-pitched sound than other alveolar or postalveolar consonants, and especially the grooved alveolar sibilants. The farther back the point of contact with the roof of the mouth, the concave is the shape of the tongue. The main combinations normally observed are, Laminal post-alveolar, with a flat tongue and these occur, for example, in Polish cz, sz, ż, dż and Mandarin zh, ch, sh, r. Apical post-alveolar, with a somewhat concave tongue and these occur, for example, in Hindi and other Indo-Aryan languages. Subapical palatal, with a highly concave tongue and these occur particularly in the Dravidian languages. These are the dullest and lowest-pitched type, and when following a vowel often add strong r-coloring to the vowel and these are not a place of articulation, as the IPA chart implies, but a shape of the tongue analogous to laminal and apical. Apical alveolar, with a somewhat concave tongue and these occur, for example, in peninsular Spanish and Basque. These sounds dont quite fit on the front-to-back, laminal-to-subapical continuum, with a relatively dull, the subapical sounds are sometimes called true retroflex because of the curled-back shape of the tongue, while the other sounds sometimes go by other names. For example, Ladefoged and Maddieson prefer to call the laminal post-alveolar sounds flat post-alveolar, the retroflex approximant /ɻ/ is an allophone of the alveolar approximant /ɹ/ in many dialects of American English, particularly in the Midwestern United States. Polish and Russian possess retroflex sibilants, but no stops or liquids at this place of articulation, in African languages retroflex consonants are also very rare, reportedly occurring in a few Nilo-Saharan languages

The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) is an independent Australian …

A Sea of Hands outside the AIATSIS building on Acton Peninsula. The Sea of Hands was created in 2014 with the help of local communities, to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the National Apology to Australia's First Peoples, 2008.

The Guidelines for Ethical Research in Australian Indigenous Studies (GERAIS)

Chrissy Grant, Chair of the AIATSIS Research Ethics Committee, running a GERAIS workshop at AIATSIS, 2015

Part of the UNESCO listed Australian Indigenous Language collection held at AIATSIS